


Wishin' You Were 'Round With Me

by justyrae



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Meet-Cute, Pining, baby gays finding their way, luke continues to be a menace to society
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:00:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28342044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justyrae/pseuds/justyrae
Summary: Alex likes his job well enough, but he likes it a lot more when Reggie comes around.
Relationships: Alex Mercer/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 33
Kudos: 135





	Wishin' You Were 'Round With Me

**Author's Note:**

> soooooo this definitely wasn't supposed to be a thing but then a friend of mine sent me a prompt and we started talking about it and soon it grew (lol) into a thing that is now this! that made sense, right?
> 
> anyway, consider this an alternate universe wherein sunset curve doesn't exist but this could totally either be in 1995 or 2020, though i didn't include any cell phones so it's probably 1995. doesn't really matter to the overall plot of the story either way, they're just dumb boys falling in love.
> 
> hope you enjoy <3 happy boxing day!

It's only been a week but Alex thinks his new job is going fairly well. He's been assigned to the garden section because, well, he's 17 and he's probably not allowed to operate any heavy machinery. He's sort of hoping that someday he gets to operate one of the fun-looking machines that lifts you high up off the ground so you can reach the things on the upper racks, but then again he'd probably end up with vertigo or something.

Or maybe he's just making that all up in his head and he'd be totally fine. Either way, his focus right now needs to be on the plants. He has to arrange them neatly, make sure they're watered, and try to keep little kids from destroying them. Which, if Alex is honest, is a lot harder than he thought it would be. He's already had to corral three different toddlers in just the first two hours of his shift and it's really starting to make him wonder just how terrible some parents are.

Truth be told, he sort of already _knew_ how terrible parents could be, but that's besides the point. Or maybe it's part of the point but it's not a part he particularly wants to think about. The whole reason he got a job in the first place was to get away from his parents when he had nowhere else to go, so it's not entirely helpful for his brain to bring them up _while_ he's at work.

Alex shakes his head and exhales sharply, forcing himself to forget all the negative thoughts swirling around in his mind and focus on what's right in front of him. He's got plants to take care of.

He's never really cared about plants before. Honestly, he still doesn't, but now that he's getting paid to care, it's slightly more interesting. Even just in a week he's already started to notice how plants look when they're healthy versus what it looks like when a plant is nearly dead. That's something he's been told he needs to watch out for, because nobody wants to buy a dead plant.

As if he didn't already know that.

As Alex makes his way through the rows of plants, he usually finds himself drawn to the section filled with various purple flowers. He hasn't thought about the concept of a favorite color since elementary school, but if he had to pick one, he'd probably go purple.

He kneels down to water the lower rack, careful not to accidentally splash himself like he did the day before. He's been lucky so far that he hasn't given himself any awkward wet spots, and he'd really like to continue that lucky streak.

When he gets back onto his feet, he glances back at the large doorway that leads into the rest of the store, and he catches the eye of a boy that can't be too far off from his own age. Alex looks away, unsure if this kid is someone he goes to school with or not. He's not _embarrassed_ about having a part-time job, but he wouldn't put it past some of his ruder classmates not to tease him about it because they have nothing better to do.

Still, Alex finds himself drawn back to the boy, and when he looks again he finds that the boy's looking right back at him. He's standing with who Alex assumes to be his mother, and she's talking animatedly to another employee. Despite the intrigued look on the boy's face, Alex can't help but think that here is the last place this kid probably wants to be on a Saturday afternoon.

Remembering that he's _at work_ , Alex turns away and goes back to his watering. The next time he looks back at the doorway, the boy and his mom are long gone.

🌼

Alex mostly forgets about the boy after that. It was only a few seconds, after all, and all they did was awkwardly stare at each other. Even though it's only been a couple months since Alex came to terms with his sexuality, he had to learn fairly quickly that he should never assume that a guy is gay just because he's staring at him.

He was probably just thinking to himself how bad Alex looks in his ugly orange apron. Alex thinks he would almost prefer any other uniform to this stupid apron, but it's what he's stuck with.

If there's one thing he can commiserate about with his fellow coworkers, it's the ugly orange apron. Apparently _nobody_ likes it, like it's a rite of passage to hate a stupid piece of fabric. The only person who doesn't seem to really care is another kid around Alex's age named Luke, who apparently _does_ get to operate heavy machinery despite being a teenager.

"You're in garden?" Luke asks one day when he and Alex are in the break room together. Alex nods and Luke grins. "Nice."

"I guess," Alex says, unsure of how to answer.

"I started out mixing paint, but you forget to seal the lid one too many times and…" Luke exhales sharply, shrugging his shoulders as Alex stares at him.

"You… what?"

"It wasn't that big of a mess. Well, the first time." Luke snickers. "The second time I walked away and it went _everywhere_." He hums thoughtfully and clicks his tongue. "Honestly, I don't know how I didn't get fired that day. I didn't even really help clean up."

"Okay." Alex blinks as he takes another sip of his soda, checking the clock to see he's only got a few minutes left on his break.

"Anyway, now they've got me unloading stuff, which is pretty cool. I get to use the, y'know--" Luke gestures crudely with his hands, "--lifty thing."

"Oh." Alex nods. "Cool."

"Yeah!" Luke grins, then leans in close. "Find me sometime when it's dead, and I'll show you how to work it." He winks at Alex, who nearly chokes on his soda.

"Uhh, okay. Sure."

He's not going to do that. He's pretty sure Luke is going to get them both fired if that happens.

"You don't talk much, do you?" Luke grins. "I like you."

"Thanks?" Alex awkwardly clears his throat and checks the time again, deciding that wandering around the store for a few minutes is probably a better use of his time than sitting here and possibly getting into trouble. "I, umm, gotta go."

"Okay!" Luke says brightly, entirely unphased by Alex's uncertainty towards him. "See you around!"

Alex waves awkwardly as he heads for the door, dropping his empty soda can in the recycling bin on his way out. He exhales deeply as he makes his way back to the garden center, dodging customers and fellow employees alike. He has yet to be stopped by a customer with a question, probably because the average age of the customers has got to be around fifty and nobody's going to ask a teenager what sort of drill bit they should buy. He's hardly even interacted with customers in the garden center; they always seem to flock to the older women who are assigned that section.

He vaguely wonders if it would make his shift go by faster, actually talking to people, but he sort of prefers it this way. At least he hasn't had to worry about sounding like an idiot in front of anyone so far.

It's about halfway through Alex's second part of his shift when he's tapped on the shoulder, and he turns around to see that same kid from a few days ago.

"Hi," he says, smiling brightly at Alex.

"H-Hi." Alex gulps a little and tries to smile back. "Do you need help with something?"

"Oh, umm, not really, no." The kid shakes his head, still smiling.

"Oh, okay." Alex stares back at him awkwardly, wondering if he should go back to work or if that would be considered rude and possibly get him in trouble. This, of course, leads to a dilemma in his head about how weird it would be to get in trouble for doing work at work instead of chatting with some random person, which leads to him entirely missing the next thing that the kid says and he has to sheepishly ask him to repeat himself.

"I said, do you come here often?" The kid's smirking at him now, and Alex can't help but feel like he's being tricked or something.

"Well, considering I _work_ here… yes?"

"Oh, right!" The kid playfully smacks his own forehead and laughs. "I'm Reggie."

"Alex," Alex replies, awkwardly pointing at his name tag pinned to his apron. Reggie's eyes dart down to it and then back up to Alex's face.

"Cool. Do you like it?"

"What?"

"Working here!"

"Uhh… yes?" Alex blinks, becoming more and more confused by the second. "I, uhh, should get back to…"

"Oh, yeah. Totally. I get it." Reggie starts backing away, still smiling at Alex. "Nice to meet you!"

"You… too?" Alex watches as Reggie disappears from view, and he stands in place for a minute or so as he tries to figure out what the hell just happened.

Eventually he shakes his head, chalks it all up to a just an overall weird day, and moves on. He doesn't spare another thought to Reggie, except maybe a fleeting one that says _he was cute_.

🌼

Reggie comes back the next weekend. Alex doesn't see him at first, having spent the last hour trying to fix a sprinkler that he absolutely does _not_ know how to fix. He's practically soaked through by the time it miraculously starts working again, which really puts a damper on the fact that his shift isn't over for another four hours.

Alex is trying to wring out his shirt under his apron when he spots Reggie. Or, at least, he _thinks_ he spots Reggie, but he ducks out of view. Alex stands still for a moment, looking around in confusion, and then Reggie peeks out from behind a row of cacti and Alex catches him for real this time.

"Reggie? What are you--"

"Alex! Hi! I--"

Unfortunately, as Reggie lifts up his arm to wave at Alex, his hand collides with a nearby row of succulents and he ends up knocking them off of the rack entirely and they all fall to the ground. He looks absolutely horrified, staring down at them and then back up at Alex, who groans under his breath.

"I'm _so_ sorry, I didn't mean--"

"It's okay," Alex says as he crouches down and starts trying to scoop up the spilled soil and put it back into the succulent pots. Reggie immediately drops to his knees to try and help, but he starts piling the soil on top of the succulents which really just makes more work for Alex.

Not to mention he keeps apologizing and rambling which makes it harder for Alex to get a word in edgewise to tell him to please _stop helping_.

" _Hey_ ," he says firmly, grabbing Reggie's hand and finally getting his full attention. "It's okay. You don't have to help."

"But…" Reggie frowns and looks down at the mess, "I did this. I should help."

"Okay, but--" Alex takes the pot out of Reggie's other hand and shows it to him, "this isn't helpful. The soil goes _under_ , not on top."

Reggie cracks a smile. "Duh. I knew that."

"Right," Alex mumbles.

"Good thing this isn't Mushnik's Flower Shop, right?" Reggie says with a laugh. "Otherwise, we'd be in big trouble."

"I, uhh, I guess?" Alex replies, confused. He has no idea what Reggie's talking about.

"You know," Reggie says, attempting to lead Alex in the right direction, except Alex doesn't even know where he's going. "Little Shop of Horrors?"

Alex shrugs and Reggie stares at him open-mouthed. "What?" Alex says, starting to blush as he puts the last succulent pot back in its row and lifts it up so he can put them all back on the rack behind Reggie.

"You really don't know?" Reggie continues to stare and Alex laughs weakly.

"No?"

"How can you work with plants and not know about Audrey II?!"

Alex shrugs. "I don't know what to tell you."

"Oh my-- This is--" Reggie is beside himself, throwing his hands up in the air and making Alex _very_ nervous that he's about to knock something else over. "You have to watch it!"

"Okay?" Alex laughs again. "I still don't know what _it_ is."

"It's a _classic_!" Reggie says, immediately launching into an extremely detailed description of the film, complete with a very convincing imitation of Steve Martin as the sadist dentist (even though Alex has absolutely nothing to compare it to).

Even though he absolutely should be working and not standing around listening to Reggie describe this bizarre movie, Alex finds himself enthralled by the enthusiasm. He actually _wants_ to see the movie - or better yet, he wants to watch it _with_ Reggie.

"I'm telling you, you _have_ to watch it!" Reggie says at the end of his long-winded monologue.

"Okay," Alex says, nodding. "I'll, umm, I'll rent it next weekend."

"Cool." Reggie grins at him, and then suddenly they're both silent.

Alex has no idea what to say. Part of him wants to continue the conversation, but the responsible part of him knows he should get back to work before his manager comes around. But try as he might, he can't seem to find the words when Reggie's just standing there smiling at him. And even worse still, if he wasn't blushing before, he sure as hell is now.

"Did you, uhh, need help with anything else?" Alex asks, wishing he had something, _anything_ better to say in the moment.

"Oh! Umm… I've been thinking about… plants." Reggie glances around and points to the section with all of the perennial flowers. "Like, those ones?"

"Okay," Alex says, unsure if Reggie's messing with him or if he's serious. He genuinely can't tell.

"Yep." Reggie nods. "Uhh, what are they?"

Alex cracks a smile, laughing a little as he leads the way. His knowledge isn't all that extensive yet but he at least knows the difference between perennials and annuals, and he can relay basic care information about most of the flowers they sell. Reggie listens and nods along as Alex points out various flowers, but it all comes to a standstill when Alex asks what Reggie's actually planning to do with the plants.

"Uhh… well, I'd… _plant_ them, obviously." Reggie scratches the back of his neck. "Like… in the backyard? Maybe?"

"Okay…"

"I mean, I'd have to ask my mom." Reggie clears his throat. "But, like, I'm definitely going to."

"Okay," Alex repeats, snickering softly. "Well, when you do that, then I can help you pick some out."

"Yeah?" Reggie smiles widely. "Really?"

"Yeah," Alex says, shrugging slightly. "Of course."

"Cool." Reggie stuffs his hands into the pockets of his jacket. "Well I should… I should go."

"Okay, yeah." Alex clears his throat and waves awkwardly as Reggie takes a couple steps back.

"I'll come back," Reggie says, "you know, after I've talked to my mom."

"Okay, sure." Alex nods, wincing when Reggie continues to walk backwards, stepping a little _too_ close to one of the other racks of plants. He narrowly misses it, waving to Alex before he turns his back and walks away.

The blush in Alex's cheeks doesn't go away until almost the end of his shift. He doesn't know when he'll see Reggie again, but the promise of it is enough to make his heart skip a beat.

🌼

Reggie doesn't show up again until Alex's next weekend shift - not that he's keeping an eye out. Alex certainly doesn't spend all three of his weeknight shifts looking over his shoulder, hoping to see a cute boy in a leather jacket wandering around the garden center. That would be ridiculous.

(Alex absolutely _does_ do that, and he's only mildly heartbroken when Reggie doesn't show up.)

Truth be told, Alex genuinely wasn't expecting to see Reggie on a Saturday morning, so when he pops up out of nowhere, Alex is understandably surprised. Still, it doesn't account for the truly embarrassing yelp that comes out of Alex's mouth when he _does_ see him.

"Are you okay?" Reggie asks.

"Yeah," Alex answers quickly, trying to ignore the look of concern on Reggie's face and pretend like whatever sound that just came out of his mouth was totally normal. "Just a… hiccup."

"Oh. Okay!" He smiles widely at Alex and then reaches for something in his back pocket. "I brought you something."

"You--" Alex doesn't know what to say. What could Reggie have possibly brought him?? Is it a gift? Is it a precursor to a date? A hundred different options are running through Alex's head but they all come to a screeching halt when Reggie pulls out a folded up piece of paper.

He carefully unfolds it, trying his best to smooth it out before he shows it to Alex.

"Since you're, y'know, a _professional_ ," Reggie says, bowing his head slightly, "I thought I'd get your opinion on what might look good in my backyard!"

Alex opens his mouth but no sound comes out. He looks down at the paper in Reggie's hands and then back up to his face, feeling extremely confused. He looks down again and tries to reconcile what he's seeing with what Reggie just said, but can't quite seem to do it.

"That's… your backyard?" he asks, pointing at the picture. "That?"

"Yeah!"

He pinches the corner of the paper and lifts it to look at the other side, and Reggie snatches it away. Alex chuckles under his breath as Reggie flattens the paper against his chest, hiding the underside of it from Alex's view.

"Reggie, that's--"

"My backyard," Reggie interrupts.

"--clearly from a magazine," Alex finishes.

"No it's not," Reggie insists as he starts pointing to random parts of the photo, claiming that his mom's put everything else in and he just wants some ideas about putting in a tree or two or maybe even another raised bed for flowers.

Even if he's totally full of it, Alex can't help but admire his dedication.

"And your mom is okay with you doing this?" Alex asks, deciding it's probably better to just go along with Reggie's ridiculous claim rather than try to convince him to give it up.

"Oh, yeah! Totally." Reggie nods.

"You do know that trees are like… expensive?"

Reggie gulps. "How expensive?"

"Like, hundreds of dollars expensive."

"Oh," Reggie squeaks. "I… you know what. Maybe trees aren't the way to go." He turns the paper around and shakes his head. "I think they'd clash. And make the whole thing… bad."

Alex snorts, but nods along when Reggie looks at him.

"Maybe," Alex offers, fully resigned to whatever game they seem to be playing, "today we can just look at some things and give you an idea of the cost?"

"Really?" Reggie asks, his eyes brightening. "You'd do that?"

"Spend my shift showing a cute guy around instead of--" Alex catches himself, clearing his throat as his cheeks turn bright red. "I mean, yeah. Sure. Let's, umm, start over here."

He leads Reggie over to his favorite section, trying to ignore the knowing smirk on Reggie's face. He didn't _mean_ to let it slip that he thinks Reggie is cute, it just _happened_. The tiny voice of reason in the back of his head keeps trying to convince him that this is a good thing, but it's definitely overshadowed by the panicked screaming of his anxiety over saying something totally stupid in front of his crush.

They spend around an hour looking at all the different flowers options, and it's probably the most fun Alex has ever had while working. It's clear that his knowledge of flowers is only slightly better than Reggie's, but it doesn't matter. Any time he can manage to name a flower without looking at its tag, Reggie looks seriously impressed.

On the one hand, Reggie seems to be impressed by almost anything, but on the other… Alex certainly doesn't mind being on the receiving end of Reggie's smiles.

"You're sure you don't mind doing this?" Reggie asks as they make their way back around to where they started. "I mean, you probably have other things you should be doing…"

"No, I don't mind." Alex chuckles lightly and shrugs one shoulder. "It is _technically_ part of my job to help customers, so it's not like my manager can get mad at me."

"Helping _cute_ customers is just a bonus, right?" Reggie asks. He embellishes his statement with a wink that goes right to Alex's chest, making his heart beat wildly as his cheeks tinge pink.

"Yeah--" he squeaks, quickly clearing his throat. "You're-- yeah. Totally."

Reggie nods, smiling proudly to himself as he glances back at all the flowers they looked at already. Alex swallows hard, wondering if he should say something. He's not sure what he would even say, but this seems like a moment to maybe make _some_ sort of move. Reggie can't possibly keep coming back _just_ to look at the flowers, right?

"I should, umm," Reggie snaps his fingers, gesturing towards the parking lot, "probably get going. Get out of your hair."

"Oh. Right." Alex absentmindedly touches his hair, smiling bashfully when Reggie looks at him. "I guess I'll see you around?"

"Yeah! Next time I'll make it worth your while," he says, reaching out and tapping his fingers against Alex's elbow before he makes his way out of the garden center.

It's perfectly casual, and it's very likely that Reggie didn't actually mean anything by it, but the phrase sticks in Alex's head all day. He's thinking about it so much that when it comes time for his lunch break, he heads to the employee break room purely on auto-pilot and doesn't realize that someone's trying to get his attention until there's a hand in front of his face.

"Dude!" Luke snaps his fingers, catching Alex entirely by surprise. "You good?"

"What? Yeah," Alex says quickly, taking in his surroundings and only being mildly confused by how he came to be in the break room already. "I'm fine."

"I said your name like, six times." Luke shakes his head. "You were totally out of it."

"Sorry," Alex says as he tries to maneuver around Luke to grab his lunch out of his locker. "Did you, umm, need something?"

"Yes!" Luke says as he pulls up a chair at the table Alex just sat down at, flipping it around so he can sit in it backwards. "I…" he pauses, scratches his head for a second, and then huffs. "Dammit. I forgot what I was going to say."

Alex snorts a little as he opens the brown bag he brought his lunch in, taking out the sandwich first. Luke continues huffing and puffing, trying to remember what he was going to say, but he comes up short every time. Alex shakes his head, choosing to ignore Luke's ridiculous antics in favor of flipping through whatever random magazines have been left on the break room table.

He's about halfway through his sandwich when he comes to the middle of one magazine in particular where a page has clearly been ripped out. Alex flips back and forth between the pages surrounding the missing one, and then sits back in his chair with a curious hum.

"What?" Luke asks, having given up on trying to figure out whatever it was he was going to say.

"Nothing," Alex says with a shake of his head. "There's just a page missing."

"Yeah?" Luke grabs the magazine, flipping it around so he can look at it properly. "Ha! I didn't think Reg was serious when he said--"

"Wait, what?" Alex leans forward, dropping his sandwich onto his lunch bag. "Did you say--"

"What? No. Nothing." Luke pushes the magazine back towards Alex and quickly gets up. "Is that the time?" he says, pointing at the clock on the wall behind Alex. "I gotta go."

"Wait, Luke--"

"Later!" Luke calls over his shoulder as he quickly runs out of the break room, leaving Alex extremely confused.

He looks back down at the magazine and then back up to the door that Luke just disappeared through, and then he picks up his sandwich again and shakes his head. He's pretty sure he heard Luke say "Reg", but maybe he was wrong. Maybe he was just hearing what he wanted to hear.

Not that Alex even knows why that would be something he would want to hear. But then he hears Reggie's voice in his head, an echo of _I'll make it worth your while_ , and his cheeks turn red all over again.

🌼

The next time Alex sees Reggie is the following weekend, at the very beginning of his shift. In fact, Reggie is already in the garden center when Alex arrives. His shift today started later than his Saturday shift last week, which makes Alex wonder if Reggie has been wandering around the store for a while waiting for him to show up.

At the very least, it's clear that he's been keeping an eye out for Alex because a huge grin spreads across his face the moment they make eye contact.

"There you are!" Reggie says, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet as Alex walks towards him.

"You're back," Alex says, trying not to seem too eager or excited. He can't seem to keep the smile off his face, so it's probably extremely obvious that he's happy to see Reggie.

"Well, yeah," Reggie shrugs, "of course I am."

He pauses for a moment, reaching into his back pocket. Alex half-expects him to pull out another page of a magazine, but this time it's a polaroid. Reggie steps closer to Alex, turning the photo around so he can see it.

Alex carefully takes it in his own hand and looks at it, but he doesn't really understand what he's looking at. Or, well, he knows what the photo is of, but he doesn't understand why Reggie is showing him this.

"Is this… your bed?" Alex asks carefully, looking at Reggie with a confused expression.

Reggie nods, wiggling his eyebrows. "Looks comfy, right?"

"I…" Alex immediately starts blushing and feels like his brain has short-circuited. "Yes? I-I don't…"

"The windowsill, though--" Reggie says, pointing to the right side of the photo. "--that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm thinking some potted plants?"

Alex has to take a moment to gather himself; to breathe in and out and remind himself that he is _at work_ and this is not the time to be melting into puddles out of sexual frustration. That being said, he really wants to know how Reggie thought that taking a picture of his room that's ninety percent of just his bed seemed like a good starting point for a conversation about _potted plants_.

Suffice to say, Alex has absolutely no idea what's going on in Reggie's brain.

"Uhh… sure, yeah." Alex hands the photo back to Reggie and gestures towards one of the racks. "Over here."

Alex finds it harder to make conversation with Reggie today, unlike the previous week. He can't understand why, especially not when it doesn't seem to be a problem whatsoever for Reggie to keep talking on and on like nothing's wrong.

And maybe nothing _is_ wrong and Alex is just reading far too much into things, as per usual. He's definitely stuck in his own head a lot more today than he has been in the past 3 weeks, which makes him second guess everything he thought he knew about Reggie and whatever this thing is that they have.

Maybe it's just friendship. Maybe Reggie just keeps coming back because he thinks Alex is funny, or maybe he thinks it's funny to monopolize Alex's time when he's supposed to be doing other things. Or maybe Reggie is just really, _really_ bad at flirting.

Alex sort of hopes it's the fourth thing, but he probably shouldn't hold his breath.

"I don't know," Reggie says, sighing heavily as he weighs two different plants in each hand. "Which would you pick?"

"Me?"

"Yeah! Which do you like more?" he asks, holding out the plants to Alex for a better look.

"I…" Alex exhales sharply as he looks back and forth between the two, and then points to the purple flower rather than the blue one. "That one."

"Purple?" Reggie asks, holding that one up higher.

"Yeah," Alex says. "I like purple."

Reggie smiles. "Cool. So do I."

He puts the blue flower back down and cradles the purple one close to his chest. Alex's mouth twitches with a smile; it shouldn't be so cute, but it is.

"What?" Reggie asks when he notices Alex is staring at him.

"Nothing," Alex says quickly. "So, are you going to get that one?"

"Yeah," Reggie says as he looks down at it. "I think I am." He snorts. "About time, huh? I've only been here like five times and never bought anything."

Alex laughs along with him, but feels weird about it after the fact. He still can't figure out if Reggie's been coming here all along to just see him or if he's just _really_ indecisive. Alex nearly opens his mouth to ask just that, but thinks better of it and doesn't say anything.

"So…" Reggie scuffs his boot along the ground and smiles at Alex. "Do I pay for this here, or…?"

"Oh, uhh, yeah." Alex gestures towards the door that leads into the main building. "You can take it to the registers inside, if you want."

"You're not going to check me out?" Reggie asks.

Alex pauses for a second, trying not to hear the double entendre and failing miserably. "S-Sorry," he manages to say, "I've got to stay here."

Reggie's mouth twists with a frown. "Too bad."

"Yeah," Alex replies quietly.

"I'll, uhh, see you around, then." Reggie nods at Alex as he side-steps him, heading towards the main building as Alex just stays rooted to the ground.

He turns around at the last moment, but once again he can't find the words he wants to say. Reggie disappears out of sight, leaving Alex alone amongst the flowers. He sighs heavily, narrowly avoiding the urge to kick the closest object to his feet, which happens to be a rather large potted plant that probably would've hurt a hell of a lot if he'd kicked it.

He curses himself for freezing up the way he did, for not trying to make Reggie's visit last longer. Now that he's actually _bought_ something he probably won't come back next weekend.

Alex really wishes that realization didn't make him feel as sad as it does.

🌼

The rest of Alex's shift is thankfully uneventful but the fact that nothing of any interest happened means it felt like the day was never going to end. After Reggie left the minutes dragged along to the point where an hour felt like an eternity. And now Alex has about twenty minutes left in his shift and all he wants to do is just _go home_.

Truth be told, he doesn't _really_ want to go home but staying here doesn't seem very appealing either so he'll take what he can get. At least at home he can curl up in his bed and hide under the covers and pretend like he wasn't a total idiot in front of his crush today.

Maybe after a while he'll forget about it and stop feeling so embarrassed. Maybe he won't keep checking over his shoulder for a sign of Reggie. Maybe life will just continue and he'll get over this dumb crush and just… be okay.

But for right now, it really sucks.

A beep rings out over the intercom, catching Alex's attention for half a second. He's gotten used to tuning it out, considering he's never expecting the announcement to be something he actually has to listen to. There's no reason why anyone would page him, he's practically a nobody.

And yet… a few seconds later, a voice comes over the intercom saying those exact words.

"Paging Alex Mercer!"

Alex freezes, turning his head towards the nearest speaker as he stares at it in bewilderment. Surely he has to be hearing things.

"Alex Mercer," the voice continues, "to the break room, immediately!"

"What?" Alex says aloud, looking around in confusion.

"Alex Mercer!" the voice says a third time, and it's then that Alex realizes he _knows_ that voice. "Break room! Now! _Okay oww I get it I'm getting off--_ "

The intercom abruptly switches off and Alex sighs heavily.

"Luke," he grumbles under his breath, "you'd better not get me in trouble."

Alex doesn't go to the break room right away. He's still got fifteen minutes left in his shift after Luke gets cut off the intercom, and he's not about to jeopardize his job over whatever dumb thing he probably has planned in the break room.

He actually doesn't make it to the break room until ten minutes _after_ his shift ends because he gets caught up with helping a coworker out with a customer, but given that he really isn't in the mood for whatever shenanigans Luke is cooking up, he doesn't even care. All he wants is to grab his bag from his locker and go home.

Luke is standing outside the door to the break room when Alex finally gets there, and for once he's not smiling. In fact, he actually looks kind of pissed.

"Dude, where have you been?"

"Uhh… working?" Alex furrows his eyebrows, giving Luke a weird look. "Why did you page me anyway? Won't you get in trouble for that?"

"I-- That's not--" Luke shakes his head. "Doesn't matter." He grabs Alex's arm and opens the break room door. "Hurry up, okay? I can only stall people for so long and you took _forever_ to get here!"

"Stall?? I-- Hey!" Alex objects as Luke shoves him through the door, but before Alex can ask just what the hell is going on, the door slams shut right in his face.

Alex sighs heavily, shaking his head as he turns around. He's about to mutter to himself _maybe I should look for a different job_ when he looks up and realizes why Luke paged him in the first place.

"Hi," Reggie says, waving shyly with one hand while the other holds a bouquet of mismatched flowers.

"H-Hi?" Alex gulps. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to give you this," he says, holding out the bouquet to Alex.

Alex doesn't move. He's so utterly confused by the sight before him that he's completely frozen in place, which makes Reggie _very_ nervous and so he starts rambling.

"I just… you like flowers, right? I mean, you work with flowers all the time so I just assumed you like flowers and today you said you like purple so I went to this florist, right? And I asked what sort of flowers to get someone you like but also can they be purple because you like purple!

"And so the lady started telling me that flowers have all sorts of meanings, which, I didn't know - I mean, how am I supposed to know that? That's not really something they teach us in school, right? But maybe they should! Anyway, uhh, so she helped me pick out a bunch of flowers and I know they're not all purple but some of the purple ones had weird meanings or like, bad ones, and obviously I didn't want to get any of those!"

Reggie pauses for a moment, pulling a piece of paper out of his pocket and trying his best to smooth it out with one hand so he can read from it.

"But I had her write down all the meanings of the ones we picked out so I could tell you. So like, this one, the purple Aster? It symbolizes loyalty - which I thought was pretty good, right? Like, loyal is a good thing to be, and it's important for a relationship--"

Reggie starts blushing then, but Alex is still too overwhelmed to say a word so he just barrels on.

"But, umm, this one! This is a Lily of the Valley, and it represents sweetness. I, uhh, don't think I need to explain that one, do I?" Reggie clears his throat. "And this is blue Salvia is like, _I'm thinking of you_ which I do, a lot, because, well… I wouldn't keep coming back here if I didn't keep thinking about you. A-And uhh, th-this red rose is, well… love."

Reggie clears his throat again and shrugs his shoulders, blushing madly while he waits for Alex to say something.

"I…" Alex laughs softly. "I didn't know _any_ of that. I don't, like… _know_ plants or flowers, I just work here."

"Oh." Reggie swallows hard and lowers his arm and the bouquet with it.

"But--" Alex takes a step forward, "--but that's really sweet. I… honestly can't believe you went to all that effort."

"Yeah…" Reggie laughs in embarrassment, scratching the back of his neck as he avoids looking Alex in the eyes, "I just… I dunno, I thought maybe you'd like it and then you wouldn't think I was weird for coming back here all the time because I like you and I didn't know how to just _say_ it, so…" he gives the bouquet a little shake, "...yeah."

"I do like it," Alex says as he comes closer and carefully takes the bouquet from Reggie. "And… I like you, too."

Reggie lifts his head and looks at Alex with wide eyes. "You do?"

"Yeah," Alex replies, the blush in his cheeks matching Reggie's. "I, uhh, thought you weren't going to come back after today… and that made my day _really_ suck," he admits with a sheepish laugh.

"Oh, no, I was definitely going to come back. I mean…" Reggie gestures around wildly. "Obviously, I had to come back."

Alex laughs. "I'm glad you did."

They both smile at each other, letting out bashful laughs as both try to think of what to say next.

"So…" Reggie says, "do you… maybe wanna go out? With me?"

"Yes," Alex answers immediately. He winces a little at how over-eager he sounds, but the huge grin that spreads across Reggie's face tells him that it was absolutely the right answer.

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](https://astorytotellyourfriends.tumblr.com/) (my ask box is still closed for now, sorry!)


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